@damienvince finishes his training, and loves it!!!

Final session last week with Bennett

well our time came to an end last week with Bennett... a six week crash course in increasing the memory skills as it applies to the game of poker.

A lot of information was absorbed and I really feel confident that I have the tools to continue the training and apply the techniques learned to gaining the edge over my opponents in the live arena. I've seen great improvements in my poker abilities in the last couple of weeks and am eager to have all the information at my fingertips to keep growing and get to crushing the game.

Bennett's techniques are likely to change the world of poker for a new generation. Taking information that was speculated at the table and giving exact numbers and ranges like you would have at the online environment. I went through a bit of a conversation with a Facebook friend of mine who said she played by feel... I get that, feel is that, a feel for what an opponent would do, a feel that if you caught the card you needed you'd stack him, or feel that there is no way the opponent would ever fold a hand, you adjust accordingly... but with this information, the feel is much more, the feel is educated, you have the proof that your read and feel is right because you know the range and you know the hands their playing.

During our last training session, @davidsmith23 was recanting 4 tournaments he had played that week, all of which he crushed. His comment was the funniest but so close to the truth that it will never be forgotten "Its almost like I'm cheating!". Its just that, the information that Bennett has easily put into our heads gives us such an edge at the live game, that anyone who wants to become a winning player would be crazy not to look up this book and learn the techniques.

good luck all, and follow along, I'll be continuing my blog as I progress.

Damien tracks more players...

Poker Frustration grows; First real rant of 2012

Well today I feel like the same old story is happening. I have been playing some of the best poker I've played in a long long time, and its even the best I've ever played because I know more about whats going on and more importantly why things work. I'm no expert by any means, but the level of thinking I have at the game far exceeds 60-90% of the players I play against live and probably more than 50% of the players I play against online.

Tonight is a regular tournament I play at the local casino, $60 entry, so nothing big, and I expect the players there to range between below average to slightly above average. Whats fun is, I see some of the same players I've played against in previous years when I used to spend a lot of time at the casino.

So anyway...
Tonight was no different, Seat 1 was a rock, played less hands then I did, sitting around 14% of hands, seat 2 was slightly more at 30% yet folded to most CB post flop he exited before the break shoving K7 on a 357 board against a made straight of 64o from Seat 4 at 44%. Seat 3 is a regular, playing there before me, he knows what hes doing and before the break had been around 22%, he makes a questionable call, there was a raise from Seat 9 UTG 19%VPIP to 3x Seat 3 calls, Seat 6 on the button 34% jams, Seat 9 rejams, and Seat 3 hums and hahs for a minute or so, and calls, Button shoved 55, UTG shoved AQo, and seat 3 has 99. This is a fold for me, I know 99 doesn't play well against 2 shoves, but more over, I'm likely racing and I don't need the race, but more likely, UTG has me crushed, he's playing TT or better, AK or AQ. So hand is finished and 99 holds, and he blurts out "I had him exactly on AQ, should have snap called, I knew I was ahead"... and most of the table told him, good call, you were ahead, had to call.

Anyway, Seat 4 was a loose cannon, but was hitting everything, before the break was playing 44% of hands, crazy amount, but hit most everything, flopped 3 straights and got paid a lot. Seat 5 had to be 90 years old, local regular, I know him from years ago... basically if he's raising GTFO, he was playing 12%. I was in seat 6, and playing standard 16% tight, but the table was loose, and couldn't get much going, did jam KK over a JJ shove and held so I had about 13K in chips going into the break. Seat 7 was loose as well, 49% of hands. Seat 8 was a revolving door, as was Seat 9.
Seat 10 I played with last week, a very loose player before the break, tightens up after the break, and basically if he catches any piece of the flop, he's willing to jam it all the way, he was playing 28%.
So anyway, into the break we go, and now its time for me to pick up steam, blinds are 300/600 and I have 13K in chips. we fill all the seats 4 hands into the level, and 7 hands in, I get 88, seat 10 calls, BB new player, calls. flop QQT, BB checks, I check, Seat 10 is the button, he bets, I lay it down, no raise here will let me win and if he has any piece of the board, I have 2 outs... he shows a T.
Next hand, I have AK, I raise again, this time, SB new player and BB regular seat 3 calls. Flop J82r, they check, I bet, and they both fold. I took this line here as the previous hand I was happy to fold this time it looks like i have something.

Next hand, I have TT, I raise again, new player seat 8, I've seen him before, but hadn't played a hand in 9 hands, he jams, I read his stack somehow around 7K I have 15Kish, I call, he has AA, unfortunately in my haste, I should have checked, he has 12K and now I'm left with 3900.
next hand UTG i fold, on the BB I get A8o, 3 limpers Seat8, Seat 4, and the SB Seat 5, I check, I was going to Jam, but instead I was shipping the flop no matter what. Flop comes 823ss, SB checks, I jam, the Button calls, and SB folds, he has A3ss, of course river is the Js and I'm out.
Now I'm not complaining about the beats, I'm frustrated at my misread of the stack, that hand I probably could have and should have folded, I raised enough that if I did get jammed on from a tighter player I could. now really there was only 3 people I wouldn't have folded that to, but anyway, I should have folded. The problem I'm having is the amount of times, these guys gamble with pretty hands and walk ass backwards into hands that get paid by worse players. Then when I'm stuck and need to hold up, there's no way in hell.

so 11 hands after the first break, I'm out. I'm frustrated past where I've been in a long time and need a break, this I know. to top it all off, I had a bad day playing poker as well... first big loss on line in the new year 3 buyins... now wouldn't have been so bad, except, AA cracked by 8T he made a straight, KK to QJ he made a straight and I flopped a set, then 44 flopped a set and he rivered a flush, KK lost again to QT I turned a set and made him his straight, and lastly, TT lost when I turned a set to his flopped flush... It killed me today, I played well, and I know variance is just kicking in, I'm still up 2 buyins for the year in 26 sessions, 5000 hands.

I'm committed this year to putting in some volume as a casual player. so far in 2 months I have 24 hours in, a lot less than I put in in previous years, but I spend more time studying then I do playing... so all in all I'm feeling better...
tonight I just feel unlucky... needing to catch big hands that never seem to come, and when they do, they just get run over or, they don't play past the flop...
I'm out for now, need a serious break for a few days. Its unlikely I'm going to get any of the work I've committed to with Bennett as my mental state is pretty shitty. I'll refocus after tonight and try to memorize all superbowl winners, and hand ranges 2 lists that are very valuable in poker and bar situations ;)
D

@damienvince tracks 7 players at online speed, surprises himself with 60 obscure items, and feels great about his progress...

Memory training update

Well its been a rollercoaster of a week since my last update. Work has taken priority for me, a lot more billable hours than in the beginning of the month and as such, the training has been a lot slower than originally started.

I had a pretty spectacular revelation over this past week though. Last Thursday Bennett had said it would only take about an hour to learn 60 of the Oscar best pictures, my response to him was something like "that's not going to happen". Well with all the techniques that we've been given, in less than an hour, I had the majority memorized. That said, as I continue to work at these new learning techniques, it gets easier and easier. I see the potential in everyday life, and I really would like to attempt some university courses to see how much I'd improve there from the last time.

That said, I need more time, between Kate and Lisa, poker, work, and sheer laziness, I need a couple more hours in my days that I can just dedicate to studying. I've played a lot less poker in the last month, spending more time working on Memory and studying the techniques as it applies to poker.
The few times I have played, I'm much more on my game. Understanding more inflection points and having more knowledge to avoid getting into spots I can't get out of.

I played the Micros Destiny tournament today and decided to apply the use of VPIP to most of the tournament, I then compared my numbers to Holdem manager at every break. I am happy to say, that my numbers for 7 players were within 2 hands of each one. My guess there is I just missed them playing a hand, or I'm calculating walks in when I shouldn't. Either way, being that far off is still more information than anyone would have at a live table.

I am learning so much, and am very eager to work with Bennett on applying a whole lot more poker math to his techniques so that I can have all that info at my beck and call!
This week, well, reviewing everything I've learned, as well as being able to track 9 players at the live table. that with some ranking of all 91 available hands and some calling charts, I'll be a math machine in a week or so.
Take care all, and big thanks to Bennett!
D

Feb 26, 2012 7:00:09 PM

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@damienvince is progressing beautifully, we are 7 innings in...

well folks, been a couple weeks it seems since my last post, I had promised myself I'd do one once a week, even have in my calendar to do it Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night, but the damn dismiss button is just too easy ;)

so here we are, about 4 weeks into training, and I see light at the end of the tunnel. Don't get me wrong, I have so much work ahead of me, and it is frightening. I'm studying things that feel like high school all over again. I'm working on the techniques Bennett has built and the more I study, the more ways I find to learn it faster. Creating all these neural pathways and training the brain to learn more and utilize more information faster and faster.

The great thing I found over the last 2 weeks is that we can now utilize the techniques to organize poker information in my head. I'm learning things like how I can calculate any specific 2 cards combination in my head what the win rate is against any random hand. So I know that a hand like T7 suited is around 52% against a random hand... now this information might be useless in most cases to an average player, but I also know that a guy in a sit and go will shove with any random cards in the SB because he has to... so I know I can call with a range of hands vs. guessing that I have to.

That also said, using the organizations in the brain, I'm hoping to work with Bennett on putting in some more tools for things like ICM and poker theory. Again, having the information at our finger tips instead of guessing. Oh yeah, and its almost exact information, not just 'generalizations'.

I know that I'd still get crushed by the elite players in the world. I know that even if I knew this information cold, and was able to make it deep in a World Series event, I wouldn't be better then those 5% elite players, but I'd sure be able to give them a run for it... And for now that's what I'm shooting for... learn learn learn.

I feel pretty positive, we're now getting into the meat of this training as it applies to poker, I feel more comfortable in my game, and I have a plan. Thats all I can ask for now.

Thanks again to @bennettonika follow him if you aren't already. I'm excited to see the progress with his new student Mary @ponderingpoker. I'm also very impressed that @davidsmith23 has done this all without the use of an iPad or technology really!

Good night folks

D



Well put Damien. First off, it would be extremely selfish of me to develop the ICM memory model without giving you a tonne of credit for telling me about it. I think the ICM model is great in the absence of any other information. We both know how much information you can now accumulate at a live table, and although the ICM model is good, I feel as though it is just like any other tool I have trained you on.....it has it's purpose.

I think card players in general look at poker (myself included) like it can be played with a magic bullet that solves all problems. It's like when you bust out you think to yourself " ah I shoulda played tighter or I shouldn't called or I have to be more aggressive post flop". It took me a long time to learn that poker is a game that you need to have an arsenal of tools to compete against the world. In the same manner that you cannot build a house with just a wrench, you cannot win at poker with a single magical strategy. Well, I suppose you could build a house and you could win, but how difficult would the house be to build, how often would you win?

You might not be better than the top pros, but I think with the more tools you can put in your head for a live game, you can certainly even the odds with the arsenal of information you have - more than just a run. I think you make it genuinely difficult for anyone even the pros to beat you.

Poker memory is the bridge from the computer to the Rio. You my friend, along with Mike and Mary are pioneers in the new breed of poker player we spoke of. You all could be called mnemonics.

I am again very proud of what all of you have accomplished in such a short period of time. I have drastically overestimated the time it would require for you to become proficient in my techniques. What took me months of trial and error to develop, you will have learned in as little as 5 to 6 weeks. Thanks again, and let's see if we can't develop the memory model for the ICM.

Bennett

@damienvince has another post!

Thought I'd take some time tonight to report no significant progress these past few days. I can make a few excuses, reality is, I wasn't feeling my best and really needed to get myself healthy after being sick for almost 3 weeks. Between a bit of flu and cold, I needed a break. That said, more things to study, and I'm working on those. I'm excited as well for Bennett, he's got a third trainee, and she seems like me, working on poker, and reality nothing can hurt the poker game regardless of what's going on. I'm eager to see if any of the techniques will blow her mind like it did mine. @ponderingpoker, good luck, and welcome to the club! On side note, I placed a bet on the Super Bowl this week, too the Giants to win by under 7 points. After several bets in my life, this would be the first I've ever won. Yay me, now to put it all back into poker!

@damienvince is now starting to track players, but better yet he is improvising

Thanks for the kind words, 4 players will be child's play when I'm finished training you. Hopefully within 10 days I will have you and @davidsmith both tracking 10 players at online speeds for 100 hands. This of course is just the beginning as you started to think of ways to utilize your new skills on other stats. I am extremely proud of your progress and I am looking forward to doing an oovoo session with both you and @davidsmith.

Ps. Online speeds are 2-3 times faster than regular play allowing you to truly gain much more information than you thought possible. I am also up because my daughter needed a bottle lol.



More techniques using Onika-Miyagi method

So its been a few days since my last posting... to catch you up to speed, I'm still working on things, but at a slower rate than before. I've had a head cold for a couple of weeks, which I self diagnosed into a sinus infection today, so my health has been holding me back. To top it off, Tuesday night I seem to have gotten a bit of a stomach bug, Lisa caught it as well, and now Kate has a cold, all in all the Vince household is like a peetree dish and memory and poker has been on the bottom of the list.

But, I have been working on things with him. In the previous lessons, Bennett has given me things I've needed to memorize, these things have helped with remembering cards in the 52 cards in order challenge. In the same fashion, I've needed to come up with more things on my own to memorize that will make my memory even stronger. As Bennett has put it, helping organize my brain. our brains will retain information, more than you and I can recall, the hope is we put the information into a filing system we can understand and recall at any given time.

So that said, I've been working on that successfully. Now I'm on to the next challenge of tracking players at a table.

I used to play a Monday night $25 league game, this was recently cancelled because the room we played in closed down. I'm working on a new casino to host the game but that will take time. In the mean time, I used to be involved in a free bar poker league here and have opted to maintain my game by playing Tuesday nights at the Northern Lights Poker League. I'm going to be using these techniques in this environment to see if I can improve. That said, these techniques are exploiting now the biggest flaw in my game: ATTENTION... I don't have any attention in poker. If I'm not playing the 2 cards in front of me, I want to be... If my mind isn't being entertained, I'm going to play the 2 cards, any 2 cards, some may remember the phase in my poker career where any 2 cards would do, I played some of the best poker i've ever played like that, but also didn't have a rhyme or reason to what I was doing. So I stopped, I use aids now, movies, books, twitter, conversation to do anything to avoid playing 28ss out of position...

Because I don't pay attention to the game, the new techniques are very hard to implement... So next Tuesday, no phone, no book at the table... just me, my mind and forcing myself into attention.

So Wednesday night, Bennett asked me to use my techniques while watching an online game, no play, just watch. I pulled up a $25/50 6 max cash game and paid attention to 2 players, following along over 42 hands *7 orbits* to track who played hands. It was fantastic, I recalled one player playing 7 hands and the other playing 8 hands, running that over 42 hands, calculated their percentages.

Having that information online is easy to get using software, but live its impossible, until now. With the memorization, I think I can track 4 players at one table, which I'm going to try on Tuesday again...

Its still a very exciting process, things are amazing me still, less now because the techniques that are in my head I see as endless possiblities. I suggested to Bennett that I could use this to calculate 2 numbers like VPIP and PFR, and even further to AG and more... then he reigned me back in, and said, lets walk before run... ok ok, I just like seeing the end before the race begins. Part of my personality.

Ok folks, I'm off to bed, but stay tuned, though if you still need convincing that memory techniques are helpful, I'd be shocked... the book went to the printer, preorder your copy on Amazon already ;)

D
Trust in the process that is your life!

We were chatting for about an hour and it was great meeting him over oovoo for the first time. We focused on techniques that he will eventually use for VPIP at a live table, which is why we did the destruction method of going thru the cards. I also showed him in 5 steps or less how to deduce your mathematical win rate on 100% hand range, he tested me out with Pokerstove running.

I have no doubt he will be well on his way to destroying opponents in 6-8 more weeks or less.

 

First virtual meeting of Miyagi

I just got off the virtual phone with Bennett and what a conversation... I spent 69:47 minutes on a call with him and if I wasn't blown before, I definitely am now.

First off, I'm tired... mentally exhausted. The first part of the conversation was discussing the mental state of me. He hadn't read my blog yet, and I wanted it that way so that we could discuss how I was before him hearing it through a monotone text. Tired doesn't even explain it right, exhausted is close, but not even... My mind is working overtime and it won't stop... :) this is all a good thing.

I read Bennett my blog, and it all came clear through that how I am feeling is normal.

Anyway, through the course of the conversation we had some interesting conversation about the mind, him giving me examples of his research, as well as me explaining things I know a little about in how the brain operates. I explained my knowledge of Mylen and how MS patients and the boy in the movie Lorenzo's oil are affected by the loss of Mylen. I know it can't be regenerated, but it can be strengthened. I know that you need to exercise your brain in order to strengthen the Mylen and that helps all functions of the body... If anyone has more information on it that is reading the blog, I'm fascinated by it and would appreciate open discussions if you're interested... anyway, I digress.

Bennett had me go through and shuffle the deck, and using his techniques, we removed 10 cards from the deck and set them aside. From there, we went through 42 cards, and just going through the deck, we were able to figure out quickly which 10 cards we hadn't seen... FFS, really? This is just messing with my head! Again, not the ability to do it... but the ability to do that 10 days later! I'm on my way to what is a fantastic journey!

I'm out now, tired and mentally challenged now ;)

D
Mind slowly rebuilding

The Force is strong with this one....@damienvince

Looks like @damienvince is well on his way to laying a great foundation....

52 cards - no problem?

Well folks my mind is still spinning that this is possible.

While I never once thought that I couldn't do it... I just didn't think it was possible in this short amount of time. I started working with Bennett 7 days ago, and in 1 week I've done something I thought for sure was going to take at least a couple of months of hard work or a month of being lazy. This is super impressive. On Thursday I took the time to write that I knew 20 cards in order in less than 20 minutes. From there, I was able to put the deck back in order, and randomly pick cards out off the top of my head. After doing it, I spent time realizing what I've accomplished and I really didn't work that hard. Using Bennett's homework assignments I was able to spend between 5-7 hours studying in 4 days, and then remember 20 cards. To top it all off, Friday, 24 hours later, I was still able to remember the 20 cards.

Friday night I wrote my blog again, and came up with a couple of concerns which Bennett addressed, primarily when would I forget the 20 cards (today I still could have told you them) he suggested 48 hours until I forgot them... but maybe I just kept working them over in my head in amazement. So today, Kate went to bed and I took on the next challenge, remember 52 cards in order... Ugh, what a daunting task, Bennett said, 20 minutes... I didn't have high hopes. I thought I could do it, but I wasn't sure in 20 minutes... Before I give you the results, I'll tell you a little about my personality.

I'm a starter. I don't finish very well... never have, its not really in me... I have to work hard through something and stay very focussed to make sure I finish it... sometimes its the lack of motivation, sometimes its the knowledge that the tough part is done, and the rest is downhill so I'll get to it when I get to it... sometimes its that the easy part is done, and the hard part I don't want to do is coming... whatever the case, I'm a starter... I know this, and this year I"m working on fixing it... its crazy that I'm like that, yet I am...

So with that said, today was a tough day... I felt like today would be tough, and didn't really want to get to the 52 cards. 20 seemed so easy, 52 was daunting. I had a fun day with Kate, took her to a movie with Lisa and I really didn't want to put a downer on my mood. Yet in wanting to finish this first part of my training/journey, I pushed through. Ate some Cheerios and dug out the cards.

I started the clock at 9:29... going methodically through the deck just as Bennett showed me Thursday... I got distracted by something shiny a couple of times and took a few moments to get back on track. I stopped the clock at 9:57... 28 minutes WTF... I memorized an entire deck of cards in 28 minutes... I could tell you what each card is too, pick any number 1 -52 and I'll tell you the card without looking at anything... 13 - 2d, 43 - Ks, 8 - 7s, 22 - Qc, etc... its absolutely amazing...
While typing this out, I even sit here thinking about my mental state, elated its accomplished, yet more amazed that in my somewhat "foul" mood to start I was able to finish...

My blogging doesn't show you my elation... I'm super excited, super impressed, and super eager to continue my journey with Bennett (Mr. Miyagi-Onika)...
D
Mind Blown

24 hours later @damienvince still remembers.....

Below is @damienvince blogging about his experience 24 hours later. He has thoughts which I have answered below his questions....


The Next Day
Bennett suggested that I blog today about the experience last night to see if I was still capable of rattling off the 20 cards.

I'm not really surprised that I can.

Ts
2h
Qc
9c
7d
2c
Qs
5h
2s
7s
4h
Jh
2d
Ad
8c
8s
2c
4d
Jh
6d

Below is @damienvince telling about his experience 24 hours later. He can instantly recall the 20 cards I gave him to memorize in sequence 24 hours later.

Now he had some thoughts in his blog which I will answer after you read it below....




The first thing that came to mind after going back through the 20 cards today, was that I wonder if remembering these 20 cards, will affect my ability to go through the next excersize of remembering 52 cards before Sunday night.

The second wonder I have is this: I have no doubt in my mind that I'll be able to learn new things, and use this memory technique to my advantage, but will it help poker. I have tools in my poker toolbox, those given to me by friends, those that I've figured out, and those that I've learned through error... how will this teach me to play better tournament poker, or cash game poker? I still follow blindly under the impression that it will all come together much as it did for Danielsan. I trust Bennet and his Miyagi ways, so time will tell.

Thanks again
D

Mind still blown


Well I am glad your mind is still blown considering the fact that a week ago you had a massive amount of trouble retaining the information and I sensed you felt it was impossible.

To answer your first question, yes. The memory techniques I give you are so powerful that you have to wait at least 48 hours when you first start in order to forget what you have committed to memory. When I first started these techniques I did them every day and found I got confused from the night before.

In short to answer your second question, right now you do not know it yet, but your image centers in your brain are rapidly forming new connections between neurons. We are in a very real sense putting your brain through a "workout". If you watch the video with Ron White, you will notice he gets a brain scan in the middle of the video and the doctor points out he is using a vast amount of his brain in remembering the information. Ron did not always use that much of his brain, it was developed over many days of training. In the coming months you will start to notice your general recall become even better. Your friend might ask what you did with a certain item and you will think about it and it will appear in your mind's eye.

You will need every connection you have when we embark on the next part of our journey. I am slowly training you to be able to put an online type poker tracker in your head for a live game of poker. VPIP, one of the hallmarks of poker tracking software stands for Volutarily put money into a pot. We will be teaching you how to keep track of all 9 other players at a live poker game giving you an exact range of their hands. We will also be training you on how to keep a mental database of hands played by your opponents in any position at the table. In 5 steps how to derive your exact mathematical win rate of your hole cards vs any two random hole cards within a 100% range, and what hands will give you a minimum 60% win rate against all ranges from 5 to 80 %. Entire volumes of poker books on tells, mathematics, strategies, moves, whatever you need so that when you are in that major tournament, and you really need that extra piece of information that may save you from a disastrous call, or call that bluff, you will have it.

You will no longer be the man guessing wildly based on 7 pieces of information. You will be the extraordinary player that knows exactly the range, math, and variance of the strength of your hand against any opponent.

A human poker tracking machine.


Only with mnemonics can the online statistical world of poker be married to the live world of poker.

That is my goal for you @damienvince.

You are an excellent trainee...soon to be master.

Take tonight off, and time how long it takes you to memorize a full deck on Sunday. I think you will do it in under 20 minutes for sure.

Bennett Onika

@damienvince takes his first step into a larger world...

I copied the following blog from @damienvince. In his own words he describes his experience over the last week. As we speak, he is forming new pathways between neurons in his brain and improving his recall. Over the past week I just trained him to organize his memories into easily accesible packets of information.

Below are his comments. Enjoy!

Less than 1 week later

Well, I've been tasked with 2 items for homework this week from @bennettonika and I have to say the week was a little confusing.

I've had a lot of help from a PP (poker pro) in Edmonton here over the last 2 years, and I have always taken the stance with him that he knows way more than I do... therefore, his word is gospel. I usually take that stance when talking to anyone who knows more about something than I do... this until I learn and start thinking on my own, at which time I can question the theory or methods... In poker, I'm dumb, therefore I try not to think too much.

As was this week with Bennett... he had me studying using his techniques... a good friend of mine yesterday asked how training was going, I told him I didn't feel smarter but I'm sure it has purpose... he said, sounds like a lot of wax on wax off stuff, I agreed, but I blindly follow.

Tonight I had a mind blowing experience... I'm not 100% with Bennett's technique, but I'd give his excersize a try. I took 20 random cards out of the deck, and using the tools given to me, it took about 15 minutes to memorize the cards which now I could rattle off without much effort... what blew my mind was, after memorizing, I shuffled the 20 cards and put them back in order in less than 60 seconds... and wait, there's more... I rattled off random cards as I was asked.

Folks, I'm shocked, I didn't think it would be that simple. I'm super impressed and eager to continue.
oh and btw, if you ever see me at a party, I'll for sure have a deck of cards, I'll show you the 20 card trick, you take 20 cards, write them down, I'll memorize them, shuffle and put them back in order, by then, I'm sure I'll have it down to 5 minutes or less.
Good night
D
Super impressed

Jan 27, 2012 12:40:04 AM | Games

@damienvince First Attempt at Rote Memory

Below is the written blog of @damienvince who went through a few preliminary memory tests. We are establishing a baseline for his own performance. Read on to see how he did.


Bennett has asked me to shuffle 1 full deck of cards, take out 10 random cards and see if I can figure out which ones by going through the deck.

7:50pm shuffled deck,

took 10 out

2d, 3d, As, 4s, Ac, 5H, Kh, Js, 6d, Jd


7:55pm finished as best I figured by the cards listed above.


5 minutes to figure out 10 cards, probably not a great time, but I changed strategies half way through, originally I started going through each number, whoops, that would take 13 tries, then I went the suits route, by the time I got to the Spades, I was already remembering which I hadn't seen, so was a quick check to make sure those cards and then the diamonds, and good to go. Now I'll check the 10 cards:
I got 1 wrong, somehow thought I was missing the As, but it was the Ac, If i had of reviewed my work, I probably would have gotten that one ;)

Second challenge

also want you to test your memory and try to remember 20 cards shuffled in sequence:

8:00pm

8:05pm holy crap. I ignored the suits after the first 6 cards... of which I got them, but was having a rough time, I consistently got through 14 cards correctly (without suits) and the last 6 were a blur.
A couple minutes later, I reviewed the cards one time, and went through them 18/20... still without suits.

Two people confirmed for training!

Dear Followers

So far two lucky card players have been chosen for my training. They will be posting on their blogs as well as here their progress in memory training for poker.

The two twitter followers are @damienvince from Edmonton, Alberta and @DavidSmith23 from Atlanta Georgia.

Awesome to have someone from the Peach State, and of course oil country!

Good Luck to the two of you. As soon as I contact the other followers and confirm them I will post them here.

I am excited to do this.

Bennett Onika
Unleash Your Hidden Poker Memory

Poker Memory Training Promotion

Dear Followers,

I have been putting some thought into the promotion of my book over the last few days. Although I am fairly satisfied with my follower growth over the last 2 months, and extremely happy with the re tweets and previews posted out there, I thought I would try something a little bolder when it came to promoting my book.

After all, I have met some truly awesome people through twitter, people whom I never would have met without social networking. I am in the process of sending advanced reading copies to other poker authors and some of my early blogger followers, but I really wanted to get connected to people across North America through this idea.

I want to personally train 5 people in the art of poker memory - for free. Well nothing is free, but the point is I do not want to take any money from these followers. I would accept in exchange a blog written about their current memory power, grades in high school/college and a published memory test of cards before they start their training, and a short article on their memory training each week they are in the program. I would aim to have the training done in 8 weeks although I reserve the right to make the training longer or shorter as I have never done this before. The training would be done through video chat once a week and we would cover the major memory training exercises in the book, with 7 days in between to practise the techniques and build those connections between neurons.

I would ask that these blogs not publish how the techniques are done, but their feelings, trials tribulations of going through the process and whether they feel that their memory is trainable and how much it has improved from the start of the program. I am confident the 5 followers that are chosen will train themselves to do remarkable things with their memories and in the end learn a skill that I wish I had learned in grade school. My life would have been a lot easier. Should this be the case, I would also ask that if I have benefited you at all through my training, promote and talk about my book as if it were your own. It would be the best form of payment an author could have.

The training would begin the 3rd weekend in January, most likely Saturday afternoons and most likely be a 1 hour session, depending on the module we are doing. If you are interested in this, I would ask that you be absolutely committed to the process from start to finish - no quitting half way through.

I have one candidate who has agreed and another whom I would like to enrol, there are 4 possible spots left but most likely 3. If you can make the commitment, and you are interested in developing your mind, I would like you to answer the questions below in the comment section below and leave your twitter handle. I will choose 3 people based on the comments they leave.

Also this competition is not open to anyone in Winnipeg as I want my followers to know that any blogs written are truly unbiased. These will be followers I met through twitter in other cities.

1. Can you go through a shuffled deck of cards one by one and tell me what the the last card in the deck is after 51 cards have been played. I would like you to physically try it and comment on it.

2. Can you memorise a shuffled deck in sequence. Physically try and write a comment about it.

3. Below you will see the top 30 ranked hands in a full table of hold em, and the top 30 ranked hands heads up. You have one hour to memorise them in order. Can you do it? Try it and write your comments.

FT          HU

1 AA      1 AA
2 KK      2 KK
3 QQ      3 QQ
4 JJ         4 JJ
5 AKS    5 TT
6 AQS    6 99
7 TT       7 88
8 KQS    8 AKS
9 AJS     9 77
10 AK    10 AQS
11 KJS    11 AJS
12 ATS    12  AK
13  QJS    13 ATS
14  KTS    14 AQ
15  AQ      15 AJ
16  99        16  KQS
17 QTS      17 66
18  JTS       18 A9S
19  KQ       19  AT
20  A9S      20  KJS
21  AJ         21  A8S
22  K9S      22   KTS
23  88         23   KQ
24  KJ         24   A7S
25  A8S      25 A9
26  Q9S      26  KJ
27  T9S       27  55
28  QJ          28  QJS
29  J9S         29  K9S
30 AT          30   A5S

4. Where are you from and tell me why you want to train your memory?

5. Name the poker champion that was said to have an eidetic memory and what his best game was.


I look forward to your comments. My 5 followers will be listed in the 2nd week of January which is approximately one month from now. Good luck and may the best followers win!

Bennett Onika.